How to Make a Cheap and Realistic Top Hat

With just a few materials, making a realistic-looking top hat is simple.

Need a top hat for a play or a Halloween costume? Make a cheap and realistic top hat quickly with only a few inexpensive materials. A top hat has three parts: the top, the sides and the brim. Cut each of those out separately, then assemble them and cover them with black felt to make a realistic-looking top hat.

Things You'll Need

• Posterboard or lightweight cardboard
• Black felt
• Ribbon
• Duct tape
• Glue
• Scissors and pencil

Instructions

1. Make the sides. An Abe Lincoln top hat for an adult looks good about 7 inches high, but if you want it shorter, pick a different measurement than 7 inches. Cut a piece of posterboard or lightweight cardboard 7 inches wide and about 30 inches long. Wrap it around your forehead and mark where it overlaps. Take it off and glue it where marked to create a cylinder 7 inches tall and just big enough to fit your forehead.

2. Set the cylinder's open end down on another piece of cardboard and trace around the circle. Cut out the circle, then cut out a circle of black felt about 1/8 of an inch larger. Using strips of duct tape, tape the cardboard circle to the top of the cylinder.

3. Place the cylinder on your forehead again, then carefully take it off, keeping its shape. Set it down on another piece of cardboard and trace around it. It will probably be slightly oval, not perfectly round. Draw another ring on the cardboard 2 inches bigger than the oval, and cut out this doughnut-shaped piece of cardboard to make the brim. You may want to use slightly heavier cardboard for the brim, so it will be stiff enough. Try the brim on your forehead to make sure it fits. If it does, cut out two pieces of black felt the same size, and save them for later. Tape the cardboard brim to the bottom of the cylinder with strips of duct tape.

4. Cover the top hat with black felt. Using craft glue or rubber cement, glue the two rings of black felt to the top and bottom of the brim. Make sure they fit snugly up against the sides.

5. Cut another piece of black felt 7 inches wide and glue it to the sides, with the seam at the back. If the felt isn't long enough and you need to use two pieces, put the seams on the right and left, so a seam doesn't show on the front of the hat.

6. Glue the circle of black felt to the top of the hat. Since you cut it just a little larger, there shouldn't be a gap between it and the felt on the sides.

7. Glue a ribbon where the brim joins the sides to make a hat band.

Tips & Warnings

• Glue a piece of black bias tape or ribbon around the edge of the brim for a more finished look.

• Add a sweatband by gluing a 2-inch-wide strip of leather or vinyl around the inside of the top hat.

• Use colored cardboard, or glue cloth to the inside of the top hat as you're assembling it, to make a colorful lining.

• If you use cardboard that's heavier than posterboard, the top hat will be sturdier.

References

• Make a Mini Top Hat

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish